Consumers conduct payment transactions on a fairly regular basis. Some payment transactions may arise from random or otherwise unpredictable circumstances: a new gadget may be released that the consumer is interested in and goes to purchase. Other payment transactions may be recurring, where the same or a similar payment transaction may be regularly conducted at a predetermined interval. For example, a consumer may pay to have their vehicle serviced every four months, may pay for a dental cleaning every six months, may take a vacation on the same week every year, may purchase an anniversary gift before their wedding anniversary every year, and may purchase birthday gifts for friends and family at the appropriate times each year.
While consumers often budget for these types of transactions (e.g., putting money away throughout the year for gift purchases), budgets do not necessarily provide consumers with reminders of an upcoming purchase. Instead, consumers often have to set reminders themselves, such as by using a calendar service that the consumer may use to manage other appointments and events. However, although a calendar may serve to remind the consumer of an upcoming purchase that needs to be made, such as the approach of an anniversary for which the consumer needs a gift, such reminders do no more than notify the consumer of the existence of of an upcoming event. In this example, the consumer is provided only with a reminder that an anniversary is coming up.
For busy consumers, the need to conduct a new iteration of a recurring transaction may be just one more task added to a busy schedule. In cases where a consumer is provided only with a reminder that the period for a recurring transaction has passed or is about to pass, the consumer must decide how to proceed with the transaction on their own. For instance, in the above example, the consumer has to decide what gift to buy for the anniversary no guidance unless manually set by the consumer when making the calendar appointment. Such a process may be time consuming and difficult, particularly for consumers with busy schedules.
Thus, there is a need for a technological solution where recurring payment transactions may be identified by a third party system, where the third party system is configured to also provide recommendations for future iterations of the recurring payment transactions, to save consumers both time and effort. This creates technological challenges in finding ways to capture relevant information that provides indications as to scheduling but also a basis of recommendations, analyze the data to divine the recommendations and calendar events and interact with the consumer, as in an automated fashion. This cannot be done by simply automating a manual process, but instead must involve a different way of thinking about how technology can be harnessed to provide recommendation to individual members of a large population is a way that is accurate and fast on a mass scale.